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HIGH WATER AT NELSON. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1905. MOTOR CAR TRAFFIC.

THE PROPOSED COUNTY BY-LAWS. THE Waimea County Council has just adopted provisionally various by-laws regulating motor car traffic on the country roads of the district. The by-laws have been forwarded to the Colonial Secretary for consideration, and yesterday the local motorists held a meeting with the object jpf putting forward their views; Some of the proposed by-laws were accepted without .question, but o t her a;*, relating- to the limit of, speed, aipw-. ing _ of horns, whistles, etc., w6re regarded as reasonably subject to 4 considerable modification. So far as the public are concerned, that is to say, the non-motoring public, the new carriage encounters a measure of hostility, because the present generation of horse is not accUstonuKl to it. In the course of a few years the training of young horses will profonibiy include familiarity with the motor car and the lat'tor's sounds, just as in the case of 'the locomotive and railway train. But it cannot be denied that, for the present at least, perhaps more in sparsely populated districts than in the larger centres, the horse does not like the car at all. Yet it is' a Question whether locnl bodies would be doing wisely to place hindrances in the way of a new meafrs of. locomotion. • » • • • I» regulating the speed of motor cars on country roads the Waimea County Council has placed the limit at 15 miles an hour, with a a special limit of ten miles an hour on the Rocks Road and the Wakapuaka road from Nelson to Rai Saddle. In the first place, writing as laymen and subject to expert correction of course, we are inclined to think that till the Act of Parliament relating to motor cars is amended the definition of limits of speed by local body regulatio»s or by-laws is ultra viros. Whether by accident or design, Piarlistment has not chosen to define a speed limit, and has con--te-ntod itself' with requiring " a reasonable speed," such reasonableness * to be judged presumably by witnesses. Assuming that Parliament k«c\v what it was doing and what it meant to do, it does not seoni feasible that local or other bodies can supply what they may regard as a deficiency in the Act, bwt which tte framers of the Act might not have considered as such. This is an issue which the Crown Law Officers may deal with er not. Probably the power conferred by other measures enabling local bodies to regulate the speed of traffic is not taken away by tho Act. But, assuming that the term " reasonable speed " does not debar the Council from defining a maximum of speed, it is a question whether a limitation to 15 miles an hour as a hard-and-fast rule is either fair or expedient. Under existing conditions, whereby "reasonable speed" has to be maintained, there is more chance of conviction o» proof that the speed of a car was unreasonable under conditions then and there ruling, say on the occasion, of an accident, than if a motorist insisted on his right to the 15-mile limit under conditions when he should probably be travelling absolutely slowly. For instance, at present, say on Show Day, when the road to Richmond is crowded with vehicles and horses, if a motorist dared to travel at 15 miles an hour he would be exceeding the "reasonable speed" required by the Act, an4 he would bo liable to punishment. Under a defined speed limit 6f 15 miles, however, he might seed Tiis car past scores pi traps and frighten dozens of horses., and yet be beyond reach of punishment', having probably travelled o«iy 14* miles an hour all the wav. • • « « But if it be necessary to fix a speed limit at all, then 15 miles an hour is too slow for cars on a lonely stretch of road, and too fast when the road is encumbered by horse traffic. The question fs beset by difficulties, and it is impossible to define where harm or good may be done by laying down very hard-and-fast rules. The local bodies in a district such as Nelson, where the settlement of men of means and! leisure is encouraged, must not drive away wealth by means of their regulations. The motor car has been accepted in localities much more crowded than Nelson, both in the town and in the country, and there is no reasos *hy, with the exercise of a proper spirit of "give and take," horse traffic should not accommodate itself in due time to horseless traffic. For their own sake motorists are not disposed to incur hostility and opposition by aggressiveness. At the same time, trie public must be safeguarded against the careless and the thoughtless and the reckless, ever) if such individuals be extremely few • m m ■ It is hoped that when the motorists of the city and district meet the Waimea County Council. the spirit of "give and take" will govern the discussion, and that •thereby regulations just to all may 'ultimately be framed. The motor car has come to stay. In a few years every horse not an incorrigible shier will be as used to the car as it has become used to the bicycle and the railway train. The problem to be solved by both the local bodies and motorists is. how to bridge over the 'gulf between the immediate present. and the near future without doing injustice lo the former.